Kendricks, Diggs Both Nominated For Pepsi Rookie Of The Week

This past weekend against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Minnesota Vikings had a couple of rookies step up in a big way. Both of those players are being rewarded for their efforts by being nominated for the Pepsi Rookie of the Week Award over at NFL.com.

We've already briefly talked about Stefon Diggs, who put up some huge numbers against the Kansas City defense. He had seven catches for 129 yards on Sunday, with six of those seven catches being good for first downs. Despite only playing in two games, he's not only second on the Vikings in catches, receiving yardage, and yards per catch, but he's also third among all NFL rookies in receiving yardage behind Amari Cooper of Oakland and Jamison Crowder of Washington. He's done so on significantly fewer receptions, as Cooper has 386 yards on 28 catches and Crowder has 244 yards on 27 catches.

His fellow rookie, linebacker Eric Kendricks, is also among this week's group of five nominees. Kendricks had a pretty big game in his second NFL start, racking up ten tackles, a sack, and a pass defended in Minnesota's win. The Vikings drafted Kendricks in the hope that he could be the rangy, three-down linebacker that could truly be the quarterback of the defense, and he appears to be moving into that role quite nicely.

Diggs is actually the only offensive rookie nominated this week. The other three nominees for this week's award are:

-Kansas City cornerback Marcus Peters (six tackles, one interception, two passes defensed)
-New Orleans linebacker Hau'oli Kikaha (seven tackles, one sack, one forced fumble)
-Green Bay cornerback Damarious Randall (seven tackles, two passes defensed. . .pay no attention to the 500+ passing yards that he and his teammates gave up)

The link for you to register your vote is up at the top of the story there. So, if you have a minute or two to spare, head on over there and cast your virtual ballot for either Diggs or Kendricks. Or both. . .not that I would advocate that kind of thing.